Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Affected or characterized by sorrow or unhappiness.
- adj. Expressive of sorrow or unhappiness.
- adj. Causing sorrow or gloom; depressing: a sad movie; sad news.
- adj. Deplorable; sorry: a sad state of affairs; a sad excuse.
- adj. Dark-hued; somber.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Full; having had one's fill; sated; surfeited; hence, satiated; wearied; tired; sick.
- Heavy; weighty; ponderous.
- Firm; solid; fixed.
- Close; compact; hard; stiff; not light or soft.
- Heavy; soggy; doughy; that has not risen well: as, sad bread.
- Weighty; important; momentous.
- Strong; stout: said of a person or an animal.
- Settled; fixed; resolute.
- Steadfast; constant; trusty; faithful.
- Sober; serious; grave; sedate; discreet; responsible; wise; sage.
- Sorrowful; melancholy; mournful; dejected.
- Expressing or marked by sorrow or melancholy.
- Having the external appearance of sorrow; gloomy; downcast: as, a sad countenance.
- Distressing; grievous; disastrous: as, a sad accident; a sad disappointment.
- Troublesome; trying; bad; wicked: sometimes used jocularly: as, a sad grumbler; a sad rogue.
- Dark; somber; sober; quiet: applied to color: as, a sad brown.
- = Syn. 11 and
- Depressed, cheerless, desponding, disconsolate.
- Dire, deplorable.
- To make firm.
- To strengthen; establish; confirm.
- To sadden; make sorrowful; grieve.
- Strongly; stiffly.
- Soberly; prudently; discreetly.
- Closely; firmly: as, to lie sad.
Wiktionary
- adj. obsolete Sated, having had one's fill; satisfied, weary.
- adj. obsolete Steadfast, valiant.
- adj. obsolete Dignified, serious, grave.
- adj. Of colours: dark, deep; later, sombre, dull.
- adj. Feeling sorrow; sorrowful, mournful.
- adj. Appearing sorrowful.
- adj. Causing sorrow; lamentable.
- adj. Poor in quality, bad; shameful, deplorable; later, regrettable, poor.
- adj. slang Unfashionable; socially inadequate or undesirable.
- adj. dialect soggy (to refer to pastries).
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Sated; satisfied; weary; tired.
- adj. Obs., except in a few phrases; as, sad bread. Heavy; weighty; ponderous; close; hard.
- adj. Dull; grave; dark; somber; -- said of colors.
- adj. obsolete Serious; grave; sober; steadfast; not light or frivolous.
- adj. Affected with grief or unhappiness; cast down with affliction; downcast; gloomy; mournful.
- adj. Afflictive; calamitous; causing sorrow.
- adj. colloq. Hence, bad; naughty; troublesome; wicked.
- v. obsolete To make sorrowful; to sadden.
- n. Acron. Seasonal affective disorder.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. bad; unfortunate.
- adj. of things that make you feel sad
- adj. experiencing or showing sorrow or unhappiness
Etymologies
- From Middle English sad, from Old English sæd ("sated with, weary of, satiated, filled, full"), from Proto-Germanic *sadaz (“sated, satisfied”), from Proto-Indo-European *sā- (“to satiate, satisfy”). Cognate with Dutch zat ("sated, drunk"), German satt ("well-fed, full"), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌸𐍃 (saþs, "full, satisfied"), Latin satur ("well-fed, sated"). Related to sate. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, weary, sorrowful, from Old English sæd, sated, weary. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“My poor kitteh, known as William, Sir William of Lounge, Sir Lounge-a-lot, etc., has crwn too. *sad* *sad* He catches his booteefuls looooong tail in bafrum door and well, it not so loooooong now. *sad* *sad* We is sad kittehs tonite.”
Aw, dude. - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“We know the once sad spirit now, no longer _sad_, the _radiant_ Genius of Humanity.”
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 6, December 1864 Devoted To Literature And National Policy
“You will think this letter a very sad one, but _I feel sad_ ....”
“i not scare die (blah blah blah) i now very sad sad +sad me say sorry then she say”
“In fact, in my survey of parents, the word sad rarely appeared, although children were often described as “depressed.””
Simon & Schuster: The Ups and Downs of Raising a Bipolar Child
“I was at the point of mental and physical fatigue when I cry so easily that all you have to do is say the word "sad" and my eyes start leaking.”
The Huffington Post: Suzanne Morrison: For the Exhausted Author, Wellness Is on the T.V.
“And President Obama wrapping up his China trip by confronting what he calls a sad part of his family's history.”
“I sat down with her this week to talk about how she's going to keep that work going long after leaving the White House and she was quick to point out that she is closely watching what she calls a sad situation for the people of Myanmar also known as Burma.”
“The suburban Chicago woman was using her blog to encourage friends to send mail to unspecified soldiers until she learned of the ban, which she called a sad commentary on society.”
“President Bush is getting a firsthand look at what he calls a sad situation in southern California.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sad’.
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EN - 3-letter words of the pattern CVC
With the exception of abbreviations and mosaic words all types of words (proper names, past tense of verbs, etc.) are allowed.
for, was, not, his, but, has, had, can, her, him, new, now and 339 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Describing People
eye, hair, mouth, nose, tooth, head, face, arm, hand, finger, lip, leg and 212 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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3 Letter Words
A list of English words that are three letters long.
ace, act, ade, ado, add, ads, age, ago, ail, air, aim, all and 397 more...
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Adjectives
sagacious, average, angry, mad, crazy, giant, ugly, pretty, happy, sad, lonely, solitary and 119 more...
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Words Heard Too Often In Songs
Words overused in modern pop music.
Also see ruzuzu's list: Words that should be heard in songs more often.love, heart, dance, dancefloor, down, take, want, night, fight, baby, like, ooooh and 136 more...
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The blues
lugubrious, mournful, doleful, plaintive, tremulous, plangent, dyspeptic, morose, poignant, lamenting, lamentation, sad and 8 more...
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Adjectives for XKCD936-compliant pass...
A list of 2048 common English adjectives that could be used to create plausible, memorable random phrases.
I'm going to use this list in a password generator, inspired by big, small, happy, sad, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, near, far and 19 more... -
Emotions
affection, longing, cheerfulness, pride, optimism, relief, success, suprise, irritation, rage, hope, love and 31 more...
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Dude, you really just need to cheer up
words denoting depression, melancholy or general lack of contentment
melancholy, depression, sadness, sad, accidie, lethargy, apathy, lackluster, topor, careless, unenthused, languid and 1 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
classic695's Words
delighted, elated, energetic, excited, enthusiastic, elevated, happy, contented, fine, pleased, satisfied, compassionate and 168 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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loinfruit's Words
buddy, hungry, hug, want, you, i, mommy, school, ballet, sign, sign language, language and 170 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sad.

reesetee I say we record all of our comments and send them to you in a file, so you can listen on your iPod whenever you want. May 11, 2011
chained_bear So hopelessly behind on comments that I will never, ever catch up and don't have time even to try. Missing my Wordnik buddies. :-( May 10, 2011
johnmperry Seasonal Affective Disorder. An acronym which started life as a joke but now is being taken seriously. Seriously that is only by pseudo-scientists, quacks and other charlatans. Jul 19, 2008